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About 6 years ago, I found this quilt set on sale at the Pottery Barn outlet. Have I mentioned that I have rarely spend money at the actual Pottery Barn store? Their quilts are quality – well made and beautiful. I love the gold and blue pairings (though the color is a bit off in the picture below). When we moved to this house, I could not wait to paint our bedroom. (Our previous rental had all classic off-white walls, hard to tell if they were dirty white or painted off-white… yuck). So I picked a simple grey-blue with some sort of ocean name… I will have to look up the name of the Sherwin Williams paint. Though I was most excited about painting this room, it has seen the least amount of attention. We did purchase the rug for this room a few months after moving in… another Pottery Barn outlet find. I think it was $120 after a 60% off sale. It’s perfect for us, because it shows very little dirt even after 4+ years. It’s soft, thick, well-made and could easily move around the house to other rooms as needed. Every piece of furniture in this room was literally given to us… free. We registered for the lamps for our wedding. A few accessories have wandered in here but not thought of specifically or purchased for this room. Even the white duvet has been around since my single days!

It’s a big room and it feels empty. We actually like having a simple and uncluttered bedroom, but it still feels a little sad.

Oh, we are a no TV in the bedroom family. Doug is adamant. I grew up with a TV in my room since 3rd grade, but I have since changed to agree with him. There are few things better than those late night random talks with Doug. I love them and doubt as many would happen with a TV in there. Oh, we did add the black out shades on the windows. They help with all the sleeping in and napping we do. Yeah right. That was our pre-baby life. Actually we still nap when we can, so the shades are appreciated. I miss sleeping in on Saturady mornings! Another bedroom staple, but not shown is a large ceiling fan. We put that in THE day we moved in. Doug has added trim to every room in the house and painted it white. As I mentioned we painted the walls before we moved in. Ceilings were painted too.

The master bedroom has the least amount of updates! See less love than every other room in our house. That should change. So here is a long list of things I’d love to do in this room:

Have curtains or fabric covered box window coverings made

Purchase and hang some/lots of art and pictures.

Actually put pictures in the frames on the dresser.

Buy a more architectural mirror for over the dresser.

New and updated sheets.

New duvet cover.

New night tables that are more functional.

Coordinating framed fabric or art behind the night tables.

New bed and mattress. As pretty as it is we both hate having a footboard on our sleigh bed. We will likely sell it at some point. Mattress is 8+ years old.

Chair or love seat and lamp for reading/relaxing.

No telling when we will get to it, though.

Please share:

Isaac’s Nursery was really fun to design. We did not find out our baby’s gender until he was born, so a majority of the room was gender neutral until… “it’s a boy!”. Of course I did have a boy concept and girl concept in mind. So below, were fabric options I found from babybedding.com. It is a fabulous website where you can order bits and pieces of bedding, and yards of fabric if you wish. I ordered samples of the fabrics I was interested in so I could see the coloring and feel the texture in person before purchase. I loved mixing and matching fabrics instead of buying a crib set with items I would not use – baby comforter and bumper. I love the site.

We bought 3 yards of the white and green polka dot for curtains, 2 changing table covers in the greens, a white dust ruffle, and one sheet in the green circles, with plans to buy another. After Isaac was born I added in the animal print fabric with the blues, since he was a boy. I ordered a crib sheet the week after his birth. If Isaac would have been Isabel, that would have been a pink, red, black and white bird themed fabric. So, I played of those blue colors, especially the navy, to add the accents to this mostly lime and white room.The crib was a gift from the family I used to nanny for. We have had it for years in the basement and it brought me great joy to share it. I spent a lot of sweet moments with their cribs and I loved passing on to my own boy. We bought a new firm mattress. I hand-painted these animal silhouettes after pencil drawing them on. I simply printed out some pictures then used a table lamp to shine/enlarge the image on the the canvas. Then I painted. They still need a 2nd coat… maybe I will get there. Maybe. The adorable curtains were made by our friend and fabulous seamstress as a gift. I LOVE LOVE them. The only major piece of furniture bought new was the Ikea Hemmes dresser. It was a gift from my dad. We did buy the matching night table figuring it would be good by the chair and eventually as a night table. Both will grow with Isaac and could easily be in a kid, tween and young adult room. Besides storage, the main function for the dresser was as a changing table. I like a longer dresser to work with. After a kid is 12-18 months their feet start to hang over… I wanted room to grow and room to work: lay supplies, clothes, etc on the dresser. I used a basket (I think we got it as a gift basket years ago) to organize some basic stuff I wanted easily accessible. Everything else lives in the drawers. I made simple art out of things we had. I bought some frames from Ikea. The “loved” art is actually cut out from a gift bag. Under that, Isaac’s hospital wristband with a fabric sample behind it. I framed some of the cards I liked from showers. The hooks are from Pier One, bought 12+ years ago. For the locals it was way back when the Panera on Beechmont was a Pier One! Not sure how much I paid for it, but I remember loving it and wanting it so I probably did not get a great deal. This is another item that never had the perfect home. It very functional to hang clothes for the next day, Isaac’s wet towel, a jacket, etc. It is right next to the changing table, again, for function! The bookshelf was an old goodwill find. It used to be black and sit in my apartment before Doug and I were married, circa 2003. I certainly got my $15 out of that bookshelf. Doug gave it a fresh coat of white paint for the baby. The angel music box is one of the few things I have that was my grandmothers’ and I had to put something of nanny’s in the room. More fabric, cards, newspaper from Isaac’s birthday on the wall. The navy lamp is a cheapie from Target. A friend made this sweet owl, and my aunt made the blanket behind. The lamp I have had for over 15 years. It was given to me and never really matched anything. But in this room, It finally goes! On the side table: a clock, ipod with baby music, a bible and some toys and puzzles. It was so nice and neat before Isaac was mobile! Over the chair is a framed onesie. Since we did not know the gender we had family and friends guess and write their names on a boy’s or girl’s onesie. This represents everyone who was right.

Overall, I am happy with how the nursery turned out. We spent very little and repurposed many items. A few additions (not that noticeable in pictures) were extremely important to us. Those were an overhead fan with lights and blackout shades. Temperature and light are very important for little babes!

One thing we were missing back then was a rug. Once Isaac was using the floor we added a navy rug, another free item! It definitely toned down the green. If I had one thing I would go back and change…it would be buying a bigger more comfortable chair for this room. We now spend lots of time reading and the glider is just not that great. Note the messy side table now filled with books? It is well used.

This room will definitely go through some changes as baby #2 comes along. I will keep you posted. Here is what I foresee:

Add a twin size bed for Isaac, maybe on the floor at first.

Buy twin bed linens that coordinate with the room.

Get rid of the chair to make more space available. We will have room to read on the bed!

Change layout to make sense for 2 beds. Thinking and planning as we speak!

Clear a side of the closet for Baby Boy’s clothes and gear.

Change out the art and pictures, maybe add their names somewhere.

Add a mobile for the baby? I never got to this one for Isaac.

Put a 2nd coat on the animal canvases, if they get to stay (I might lose the animal them all together).

Our bathroom, yeah. The one and only in the house. Well, all I can say is the sink, toilet and shower all match. When we were house shopping back in 2009 we saw so many fixer uppers (because I have a handy man). We always marveled at the gems we would fine. This bathroom is super out-dated, but at least it was matching. While I am not a fan of the honey wood so much, I played with it and the green and off-white tile with the colors in the shower curtain. This shower curtain was one of my first purchases for the house and I was SO excited when I found it at TJ Maxx for $15-ish dollars. It had the greens, golds, tans that would blend with the colors settled in the room and also gave me the idea to bring out the chocolate brown and orange also found in it’s stripes. The window shade was made for us from a panel of curtains that hung in our rental house’s living room. It was from Target but repurposed into a Roman Shade, by the talented Janet Garner. As a housewarming she blessed us with making some window coverings in a few rooms. I love the texture and it went perfectly with the shower curtain. That was total luck and cost us $0! I purchased 2 chocolate chenille rugs that same day from TJ Maxx and later found chocolate towels, hand towels and washcloths from Pottery Barn outlet. Best. Towels. Ever. And, so worth the extra couple bucks. At the outlet they are pretty reasonable, but I can’t remember what I paid. Doug and I both really like the old tile. The color is good and it has character, but notice the unfinished concrete trim next to the tub…that is not so pretty. Sorry for the poor picture, but you can see the architectural detail above the shower. We like that.We hung this picture with greens, orange, and deep brown. It was done by an artist in The Philippines. A dear friend who lived as a missionary brought it back for me. Candle holders were clearance from Target, candles also grabbed there.

I’m not too into crosses hanging on the wall, but I like this one. I think it was from Pier One. In the picture above you can see all towels holders and outlet covers are that nice honey wood. A LOT OF WOOD in this bathroom.

The bathroom is small and simple but works. I am happy with what I’ve done with what I had to work with, but that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t love to make a lot of updates. We will likely gut the whole thing and start from scratch as budget allows. Here is my list for the future:

New toilet, sink, and tub in white.

Build a long but narrow open sink cabinet in dark wood, something like this or this or this. This needs to be open to be longer so it doesn’t block the vent on the lower wall next to the vanity.

Put a large mirror on the back wall without a medicine cabinet.

New light fixture

Lighten up the space with greys and white, bright tile, new towels and some bright artwork.

Clean out and organize the closet with pretty labeled baskets. (Notice I did not show you a picture of the inside of the closet

I am starting to add pictures of our home to the blog. Eventually we will have a “House Tour“! Right off our kitchen is our dining room. It is actually officially our 3rd bedroom. When we bought the house 4 years ago, we didn’t need a 3rd bedroom, especially one right off the kitchen. So we made our great room into an extra large living room, and made this room our dining room. The room used to have wallpaper and 80′s shag carpeting. We peeled walls, pulled carpet, painted, and added trim to this room.

In our previous rental house we did not have a dining room. I was also spending more time in the kitchen preparing meals for my man. So I was really excited to have a place to sit and eat and enjoy meals together.The table was a hand-me-down from Doug’s aunt and uncle. It used to be a blond wood but Doug spent a lot of time sanding and staining this bad boy. He chose the stain color to match the bench. We only had four chairs passed onto this, but the bench was another “hey do you want this?” from Doug’s grandma. The highchair was handmade by Doug’s dad for Isaac. Isn’t it awesome? It is super sturdy! Doug stained that to match as well.On the wall behind the table are a few Pottery Barn shelves. Maybe the only thing I have purchased from the actual store, not on sale! They were my birthday present our first year married. I still adore them. The black base cabinet was a $10 purchase from goodwill about 12 years ago. It once was a TV stand in my apartment; I painted it black way back then, but it is due for another coat.I used to store service ware, glass dishes and vases, etc. until Isaac became mobile. Then the glass went bye-bye. I would love to get doors on this friend so I could use it for safe storage again. In fact we even bought the hinges and have spare wood for the doors in the basement. Gotta make my way onto Doug’s project list!

The dining room has two entries, the other connects to the hall that leads to the other bedrooms and bathroom. From this view you can see the dining closet (also known as my office) and the built-in bookshelves! I love them. They are so fun to decorate, but I admit that they have not seen much love recently. Again, once Isaac could reach, things migrated closer to the ceiling. The shelves are pretty cluttered with household items that needed to take another step on the stairway to heaven. On my project list is to de-clutter and prettify these shelves…again. You can see that the lower shelves hold some of Isaac’s books and a toy. When he was smaller he used to sit and play in that corner as Doug and I would finish dinner. So I kept a stash of toys and would rotate items in there to keep it interesting for him. That was a mom trick so Doug and I could eat and catch up. Isaac now eats with us and then is “all done”. He rarely sits and plays there anymore. Our fourth chair sits in the corner near the kitchen. Since we have a small kitchen, no mudroom and congested entry from the garage/basement I have created a little nook here. This is a place where Isaac knows he can find his shoes and jacket. We will also put anything he needs for the next day – lunch bag, backpack, snack for class, etc. We can send him to grab his stuff, which sometimes is really helpful! So there you have it. Our plain jane dining room! It is very functional for us right now. As time and budget allows, I would love to do some updates in this room:

Paint the room a new color, maybe a medium grey

Purchase a rug to break up the wood in this room. Must be easy to clean